Improve Your Jiu Jitsu Consistency With This

Here’s an experiment for you to try if you’re struggling to make training regularly.

I call it “The Monthly Review”

What I see a lot is people trying to rate themselves on short periods of time, like sessions or weeks of training. But the reality is that your aggregate is more telling. What you do over long periods of time is a more accurate representation of what your training is like.

Ideally, you want to review a training period after 3 months or so. Set a goal of somewhere you want to be in 12 weeks. Assuming 3 sessions per week, that makes 36 training sessions. Log when you train and when you don’t, and then look at your actual results at the end of the 12 weeks.

If you got about 28 out of those 36, I would say you’re doing pretty well. Work, injury, sickness, or circumstance will take you out of a few sessions in a 3 month period. You may even have been able to do an extra session here or there.

Okay, hear this from a coach- Someone who trains 28 times in 12 weeks will improve. Assuming a good effort in training of course. You can do more if you’ve more time, and your level will improve commensurate with that, but here, we’re assuming a guy or girl with a job training as a hobby. I’d have another rationale for someone training to go to tournaments.

But let’s start small. Let’s start with a Monthly Review. Here’s what we’re going to do for November:

-           It’s November. And you’re going to aim for 3 sessions a week. That’s 12 sessions.

-           Let’s try to get all 12 for this experiment.

-           Make a note of where you’re at right now. How do you feel after sessions. Who you’re competitive with, what aspect of your Jiu Jitsu needs work.

-           Hail, rain, or shine, get 3 sessions a week in. If you miss one, make it up as soon as possible.

-           At the end of the month, count up your sessions.

And then do the most important thing- rate your improvement. Did you get better at the aspect you wanted to? Did your fitness improve? Did your sharpness improve.

I’ll ruin the surprise. Yes, these things will improve. It’s a short period, so it might not be dramatic, but they will. Even if you get 10, it’s not half bad. This will be particularly noticeable if you’re someone who usually doesn’t string periods of training together.

Okay, tell me how you get on with this. I’d like to know!

See you on the mat,

Barry